Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy

Wargaming is a big hobby with many diverse factions and perspectives: striking a balance that pleases everyone can be truly challenging! We like to think what sets Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy apart from other historical wargaming magazines is its focus on having fun, no matter what kind of wargamer you are or what your background is. WS&S is a light-hearted publication, that pays particular attention to games themselves and how to play them: it doesn’t get bogged down in lengthy historical expositions or recycle content you can read yourself in any history book. While popular periods like WWII, the Napoleonic era, and the ancient world get frequent coverage, we also try to feature the unexpected, with articles on spies, monsters and gangsters to name but a few.

WARGAMES SOLDIERS & STRATEGY MAGAZINE

Editorial

MINIATURE REVIEWS • A look at some of the newest miniatures, terrain pieces, and more from across the wargaming world.

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION • We’ll be well into 2022 by the time this reaches print, but I write in early January so I’m going to begin with my New Year’s resolution. I managed to hold to last year’s promise to myself – namely never to look at any news story that features the word ‘stunning’ in the headline – so I have high hopes for the coming year. My promise for 2022 is to spend less time stripping old toy soldiers and more time painting. Last year saw the deployment of gallons of Dettol and the steady accumulation of boxes full of gleaming metal. Most of this dated back to the days when flares were the thing and all the talk was of joining the so-called Common Market. Where would it all end, I ask you?

MARCHER LORD • In the years following the Norman Conquest, the brutal struggle to tame England intensified. Successive rebellions and the Norman campaign that followed, the Harrying of the North, laid waste to the north of England. A recent estimate states that 100,000 people died by direct slaughter and collateral starvation. Even William on his deathbed was appalled at what he had done.

IN SUCH A WAY THE FIELDS ARE FATTENED • Two very large Germanic tribes, the Teutones and the Cimbri, caused the Romans a considerable amount of fear at the end of the second century BC. Rome’s first encounter with these tribes occurred in 113 BC in Noricum (modern-day Austria). The Roman consul Pa-pirius Carbo attempted to attack the tribes without warning and was heavily defeated. Instead of then attacking Italy, the tribes moved past the Alps and continued their migration through Gaul.

ISOLATED AT BLOODY GULCH • On 13 June 1944, the 501st and 506th Parachute Infantry Regiments of the 101st Airborne Division were attacking southwest of the strategically vital town of Carentan, seeking to expand their defensive perimeter. Unknown to them, these actions would coincide with a counterattack by remnants of the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment, reinforced by StuG III assault guns and soldiers from 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division. These clashes would become known as the Battle of Bloody Gulch.

PIKE, BOW & LIVERY COAT • A wargamer thinking of early Tudor warfare might think of the battles of Bosworth and Flodden with very little difference in the armies. Moreover, it is commonly thought that Tudor England missed out on European military developments. So why bother? That notion has prevailed due to the lack of easily available information and has become a self-fulfilling prophecy in Tudor Army lists. I hope to change this notion and encourage new interest in the era.

HENRY’S ARMY ROYAL

THE ORIGINAL GROGNARDS • There have been elite ‘guard’ units assembled by various regimes throughout recorded history: the Assyrian king’s Royal Guard, the Roman Praetorians, the Byzantine Varangian Guard, all the way up to more modern formations such as the Waffen-SS. Amongst these different formations,...